Maxim UK available online as print edition is axed
Maxim UK are to ditch their print edition, going online only after a major drop i
n circulation over the past year.
Statistics reveal that the publication, owned by Dennis Publishing, have seen a 41.4 per cent year-on-year drop during the second half of 2008, to 45,951 copies.
The publishing house announced that June will be the last issue of Maxim UK, and is due to be released on April 23rd 2009.
Dennis Publishing, who own over 50 magazines, websites, e-zines and mobile phone sites, has started a consultation period for all 12 editorial and commercial staff who work on the brand, including those who produce its digital content. The publisher has claimed that they will build their online editorial team to develop more content for the Maxim.co.uk website.
James Tye, CEO Dennis Publishing, said, “The Maxim brand remains the best-selling men’s lifestyle magazine in the world, but Dennis Publishing must move with the times and recognise that the future of the brand in the UK is online.
“We are extremely proud of what Maxim UK had achieved: as a print magazine, it was at the forefront of the UK lifestyle market and as a website it will continue to inform and entertain thousands of readers every day.”
Current subscribers to the magazine will be given the option of subscribing to the US version of Maxim, or to another of Dennis’s other men’s lifestyle magazines.
The award winning magazine was launched in 1995 and has fed 20 something males, real life information in an informative and entertaining manner.
The website, launched in 1999, has established over 500,000 unique users per month and 260,000 subscribers to its weekly email.
The closure of Maxim UK’s print edition, follows the axing of Bauer Media’s, mens lifestyle magazine, Arena.
Mike Soutar, manager of a very similar men’s lifestyle magazine, Shortlist said that his free magazine “had been a contributer” to Arena going out of business.
Developments to the Maxim.co.uk website will not change any of its current policy of giving away content for free, according to a spokeswoman.
At present, many publishers, such as IPC Media-owner Time inc, who own, NME, Nuts and Marie Claire, are considering options to develop subscriptions upon which customers will pay for the content produced online.
Popularity: 5% [?]
